


On Meeting a Moth

by Jeanniebird



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who: Eighth Doctor Adventures - Various Authors
Genre: Alternate Universe - Demons, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Demon Who, Dr Nyarlathotep, Gen, The Doctor (Doctor Who) Uses They/Them Pronouns, The Taint, meetings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:14:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27213268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jeanniebird/pseuds/Jeanniebird
Summary: Fitz makes a flower arrangement and gets more than he bargained for. Literally.
Relationships: Eighth Doctor & Fitz Kreiner, Eighth Doctor & Samantha "Sam" Jones
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10





	On Meeting a Moth

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kitty Eden (TheBigCat)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBigCat/gifts).
  * Inspired by [cleanup duty](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14751677) by [Kitty Eden (TheBigCat)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBigCat/pseuds/Kitty%20Eden). 



Fitz sighed as he clipped off another leaf of a flower for the bouquet. It was a big circular arrangement for a large client, probably for the entrance hall of some large firm, Fitz hadn’t really been paying attention when Mrs. Simms had briefed him on that. The leaf joined the others on the floor in the bouquet ring as Fitz shuffled around on his knees to reach the position for the flower. The straw circle for fixing the decorations was too large to fit on any table they had available, so Fitz now had to crawl around on the floor in the back of the garden center to put it all together. At least this was the last one, his knees were complaining and he was in need of a fag. He tucked in the last camelia and fixed it with a piece of wire.

Then he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. A butterfly (or was it a moth?) had landed on one of the flowers. It was lime green with a wingspan as wide as his hand; its lower wing endings were long and pointed.

“How did you get in here?” Fitz reached out with one hand in hopes that the insect would crawl onto it and he could carry it outside. Instead, a large cockroach emerged from between the leaves and crawled over his hand towards the floor. Fitz made a startled noise and pulled his hand away.

Impossibly, more and more insects of all kinds came out of the flower bouquet, all of them heading towards the center of the arrangement. Soon, there were so many they didn’t fit into the circle of the bouquet and started climbing on top of each other, rapidly forming a large figure. Darkness seemed to coalesce around them until the insects making up the body of the creature were barely visible. Their form was vaguely humanoid, but with a pair of huge wings poised behind them, making them look even more menacing. A pair of lime green eyes shone from the darkness that was the creature’s--the demon’s--face, quickly joined by a wide smile.

“Hello, my apologies for startling you. I’m the Doctor,” they said with a surprisingly smooth and surprisingly British voice for someone made from bugs. 

“Fitz”, he answered faintly from his position on the floor, “What…what are you doing here?”

The demon’s smile grew even wider. “Oh, I thought you had something in mind seeing that you drew the summoning circle.” They gestured downwards to the flower arrangement and fallen leaves, “If you don’t have any plans, I just came to rescue the begonia!” They pointed a talon at a ragged-looking plant in front of one of the nearby greenhouse windows.

Fitz stares at the plant for a long second. “This begonia? But it’s nearly dead.”

“Hence the need for rescuing. There is nothing more valuable than getting a second chance in life!”

“I see,” Fitz said, without really seeing at all.

“You see, I think it has simply been exposed to too much sunlight. If you were to put it in a more sheltered…” the Doctor’s enthusiastic monologue was cut short as they reached the flower bouquet circle and full force crashed into an invisible barrier. Upon impact their body seemed to lose form and it reminded Fitz of liquid splashing around in a glass before they reformed themself, one clawed limb at their forehead.

“Ow! That hurt. Would you mind bending back that camellia? All this summoning circle business is rather inconvenient.”

Fitz slowly started to get back his bearings.

“Why would I do that? It doesn’t seem like a good idea to let a demon loose to cause chaos.”

“I’m not out to cause chaos! That just follows me sometimes. Look, I just want to put the begonia in a more sheltered place, because it can’t stand the direct sunlight.”

“So I’ve gathered. You’ll go when I give you the begonia? I can hardly deliver the bouquet with a demon inside. Then again, it might be worth a try just to see the look on Mrs Simm’s face.”

“Well, in fact there are also some other occurrences in the area I’d like to inv--” 

They were interrupted by an athletic woman with short blond hair running into the shop, shortly followed by a man who was moaning and yelling with froth coming from his mouth. The woman had run directly towards them, or more likely towards the back door, when she spotted the smiling figure made out of darkness in the flower circle, and Fitz, who was just getting to his feet. 

“Doctor?” she exclaimed, her pursuer momentarily forgotten. 

“Sam, what are you doing here? And who have you brought with you?”

“I don’t know. I just saw him on the street, he was already in quite a state.”

The subject of their conversation didn’t seem to care much for it and his gaze zeroed in on the Doctor, running at them at full speed. They gave a startled yelp but had nowhere to go within the circle. The man lunged at them, but under the force of the impact the Doctor’s body seemed to turn liquid again. The darkness splashed all over nearby plants and the bouquet, which had been disturbed by the assailant half tripping over them. Each droplet seemed to revert to a small insect.

The frenzied gaze of the man landed on Fitz who stood right behind where the Doctor had been but a moment ago. He lunged forward and the handle of the back door pressed painfully into Fitz’s back as he gripped the guy’s arms trying to fend him off.

The Doctor reformed behind them, staying remarkably solid as they wrestled Fitz’s attacker off him while speaking gently in an attempt to calm him. As that did not work, they briefly touched the man’s forehead with a talon and he instantly collapsed, sinking through the Doctor’s body in slow motion as the Doctor gently deposited him on the ground.

Fitz looked around the shop and the destruction the fight had caused. “So that would be the chaos that follows you around”, he commented dryly. 

He was almost certain the Doctor’s smile turned sheepish. “Technically he was following Sam, but yes, this does seem to be the kind of mess which seems to follow me around.” 

Their whole demeanor changed as they twirled around, their wings barely missing Fitz “Sam, Sam, Sam! Sam Jones, it’s good to see you!” they rushed forward and enthusiastically enveloped her in a hug, literally, as they ended up more flowing around her instead of properly embracing her. 

Sam gave a long suffering but indulgent smile. “It’s good to see you, too, Doctor.”

“What are you doing here, Sam?”

“I live here.”

“Yes, yes, but I mean the running away from crazed men?”

Sam raised an eyebrow. “You were the one who taught me that.”

The Doctor’s smile turned proud. Fitz was surprised how much emotion he could gather from a blob of darkness with a resting smiley face. “Indeed, I did. Mmmh, let’s see if we can find out what caused …” The Doctor rummaged through the unconscious man’s pockets and located an ID. “Oscar Austen to chase you in the first place.”

Fitz exchanged a glance with Sam over the Doctor’s form as they continued to rummage through the unconscious man’s pocket, oblivious. 

It dawned on Fitz that he might just have summoned his second chance to make something out of his life.

**Author's Note:**

> Eight is a non-Newtonian fluid :)  
> Thanks to [Kitty](%E2%80%9Chttp) for the awesome AU to play with, to [Zeph](%E2%80%9Chttp) for the Lunar Moth idea and to [Wren](%E2%80%9Chttp) for being my beta as well as my partner in crime, jerkbrain wrangling and Who watching.


End file.
